Play the Role
by Slinky-and-the-BloodyWands
Summary: Gabriel liked humans, he really did. And when he met Jo Harvelle, he had to admit, he liked the kid. So, when she died, he gave her the role she'd always dreamed of playing: a heroine, a hunter to beat all hunters, a slayer of demons...


A/N: Was written during August Fic-A-Day. Setting for Buffy is post season 7. Setting for Supernatural begins at season 5, between "Changing Channels" and "Abandon All Hope". Not ship heavy (gen or pre-ship, really), but written for my Jo/Gabriel square at **spnpairingbingo**.

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><p>Okay, he wasn't going to admit that maybe, just maybe that mush-for-brains Dean Winchester had struck a cord with him. Nope. However, he would admit that his last encounter with his big brothers' vessels had left him somewhat curious as to how they planned on fighting their destiny.<p>

Not that he was going to get too close. They were treading far too close to Lucifer these days, and, frankly, Gabriel wasn't sure he was ready to see big brother. Like, ever again. Because if he ran into Luci? Well, some of his family members had a hard time taking no for an answer.

There was this little part of him, the part that kind-of sort-of felt sorry for the Winchesters, that wanted to warn the kids that they were going in cocky. Their plan was going to fail. Epically.

Why wouldn't they just listen? Why wouldn't they just surrender to it? Get it over with, already. Play the role.

Still, Gabriel had to wonder how they were going to make it out alive and watching this show was better than _Dr. Sexy_ reruns. So he tuned in, and he did what he enjoyed doing most, observing the hilarity of the human race, cracking a few one-liners, and, of course, making sure the ones who deserved it got their just desserts.

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><p>She was a cutey. Not that his siblings upstairs would have noticed anything like that, Gabriel acknowledged with a sneer. His brothers and sisters, for the most part, didn't spend enough time with humans to give a crap about them. But Gabriel could appreciate their finer...assets.<p>

"Quit staring at my ass."

Gabriel pretended he wasn't cocking his head for a better view. "Actually, I was staring at that candy wrapper stuck to your..."

He trailed off, pointing a finger in her general direction when she gave him a puzzled look. Jo patted the back of her denim jeans, then blushed when she found a piece of sticky plastic.

"Gross." She made a face, flicking it into a garbage can beside the store's counter. "Uh, sorry...I didn't mean to, well, I guess I did, but..."

"It's okay." Gabriel smirked. "I was kind of looking at your ass, too."

Jo rolled her eyes, then stepped around him, making her way to the back of the convenient store. She had one arm already full of snacks and looked to be in search of beer.

"You old enough enjoy to drink that?"

She didn't bother to answer him. Gabriel chuckled, already knowing the answer, and knowing that her mother had owned the popular hunter hangout, Harvelle's. In fact, he felt he knew quite a bit about her by now. Like how she was currently wasting time at a gas station, stocking up on what amounted to a pathetic amount of junk food, as if she'd actually be able to finish any of it. He imagined her stomach was in knots considering she believed tomorrow to be her last day on Earth.

My, but didn't this show have the most interesting supporting cast?

Gabriel smoothed a hand over his nametag, which currently read "Gary," and slid back behind his cash register, patiently waiting for her to finish. The real Gary was somewhere in the back, lost in the maze that used to be the stock room. He'd make his way out in a couple of hours. Probably.

Jo tossed her load onto the counter, the beer clinking loudly.

"You know," Gabriel started, adding a bit of a leering eyebrow when she looked up at him, "if you're looking to entertain yourself tonight, I can think of better ways to pass the time."

"How have you not been fired yet?"

Gabriel blinked. "I don't know what gutter your mind is in, but I'm trying to sell you a DVD."

Jo frowned. "You sell DVDs _here_?"

Her question was well warranted. Gabriel would admit, this place was a bit run-down. Though, it had a great candy selection. He gestured to his right, where a stack of shelves was showing a number of titles, all stamped with "USED" stickers beneath their prices. He could tell she was mentally retracing her steps; no, that hadn't been there when she'd arrived. But she didn't need to know that.

"Bought out an old rental place," he noted, casually. "We're trying to unload them."

"I don't need any movies," she said, digging out her cash. "Thanks, though."

Gabriel shrugged and waved his hand beneath the counter. One of the cases toppled off the shelf, hitting the floor with a clatter.

Jo moved to pick it up for him, then smiled fondly when she read the cover.

"Ah, the 'best-of' DVD," Gabriel said, bending over the counter to see her choice. "All the good episodes."

"Not all of them," she said, then shook her head, as if she hadn't meant to admit that. "I used to love this show when I was younger. I used to own all the seasons when I was in college."

"Bet you always dreamed of being her," he said, nodding to the blonde on the front cover. He didn't wait for Jo to respond. "And you're right. _All _the episodes were good ones. But there are just enough tasty morsels in that collection to keep a person busy for the night."

Jo moved to sit it back on the shelf, then hesitated, turning it over in her hand again, her smile a bit sadder now. "I'll take it," she said, quietly.

"Thought you might."

Gabriel chuckled to himself, considering he might have just screwed Dean Winchester out of, well, getting screwed. He sobered quickly, though, considering the girl who'd just stepped out of the store.

"Good luck, kid," he said, but he didn't feel it. She was going to lose the battle tomorrow, and he knew, without a doubt, he wasn't going to do a damn thing about it.

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><p>Ah, who was he kidding? Gabriel had always enjoyed good old fashioned improv.<p>

He hadn't stayed for the main event. In fact, he hadn't followed the fearsome five into the town, trailing back when they separated from Singer. But some part of him had to know if it was almost over, if the boys had been captured. If this battle was finally coming to a head.

No such luck.

But it was a sight worth seeing, all those reapers, all of them too preoccupied to even realize an archangel was close by. There were plenty of dead in this town, but for something as old as him, human death wasn't that big of a deal. If he worried about every human who passed, he'd have to move to Pluto to get a moment's peace. But then, he didn't get to know many people who weren't complete douche-bags these days.

For precisely that reason.

The Winchesters had made it through, off to play with their pea-shooter, but he was sad to see they'd left that blond cutey behind. He saw the Harvelle ladies, their souls at the least, wavering between this world and the beyond. They'd only been dead a few minutes, their remains still frying in the blaze. And they were alone, unaware of one another, despite being so close in death. The mother was already being led off by a reaper.

Gabriel felt an urge to do something. Anything.

He had the power to try and piece the kid back together, but what would be the point? She'd went out in a literal blaze of glory. Her role here was over, her days on this Earth done.

Her days on_ this _Earth...He still had a few tricks up his sleeve. He might not have the mojo or the celestial clearance to hide out in other realities, but that didn't mean he couldn't toss a soul or two over the rainbow.

Gabriel smiled at the spirit of Jo Harvelle, grinning as she recognized his vessel. Then he lifted one hand and snapped his fingers.

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><p>"Trish, down!"<p>

The shout didn't go unheard. The slayer heeded the warning just in time, arching back out of the way of the massive pendulum just as its razor-sharp edge sliced into the space she'd just occupied...and through the warlock.

The body hit the tunnel's floor with a thud, and Jo released the breath she'd been holding.

She didn't have a moment to spare, though. The warlock was down, but he'd left behind plenty of his goblin-like minions and their angry hisses filled the darkened tunnel. With a graceful spin, Jo sent one of the grotesque creatures flying then moved into a front tumble, rolling through the gap between the pendulums. Behind her, she could hear a few of the other girls battling the goblins in the hall of spears, but her focus was ahead. The faster she could finish this, the faster they'd all be out of danger.

Jo reached out on instinct, and Trish caught her hand, pulling her up out of a goblin's reach and out of the way of the last swinging pendulum. Without sparing another moment, the girls raced the last few steps to the stone door.

Jo reached beneath her blouse, pulling free the key hanging around her neck and sliding it into the tiny hole at the center of the door.

The key clicked and the spotlights flickered to life above the tunnels. The pendulums went still, the remaining goblins bursting into dust, and for a moment, all she could hear was the labored breathing of the other slayers. Jo cupped a hand over her eyes to block out the light and grinned up at the audience staring down into the labyrinth.

"Did we beat your time?" Jo shouted.

The other girls in the tunnel chuckled, but Jo was focused on the people above. The doorway popped open, and Jo took the stairs behind it two at a time. Xander was there to greet her at the top, though he seemed more preoccupied with swatting at a moth that refused to leave his eye patch alone.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, Harvelle," he said, but his good eye was still sparkling with a grin, even as he pulled the twenty from his jacket pocket. He pushed it into her palm with a sigh of regret. "Just so you know, though, if Willow had been running the course instead of her flunkies, those goblins would have been about ten times scarier. And possibly look like frogs. Which are slippery and harder to get by."

"Excuses, excuses." Jo smirked at him, bumping his shoulder as she walked past. "You're just upset that my team is more kick-ass than yours."  
>"Hey, did someone just call me a flunky?"<p>

Jo purposely ignored Andrew's question, ruthlessly leaving her second in command, Trish, to deal with the clean up. She could smell bread cooking, even through the forest, and she followed her nose to the next clearing, where she could get a decent look at her home.

She came to a dead stop at the treeline. Even by the moonlight, the castle was a spectacle. And loud. It sounded like a giant beehive, a hundred chatty voices behind those stone walls.

Most of the other slayers were at dinner, a few of them out on a patrol of the grounds, and she was sure she hadn't just imagined someone shouting her name from one of the higher windows. She waved without bothering to figure out who it was and laughed to herself. Some days she couldn't believe how lucky she was. Admittedly, not everyone considered her type of luck to be of-the-good. There were a number of the other slayers who'd called their new fate a curse. And to an extent, she supposed, they were right.

But Jo didn't see it that way. Being a slayer...Being a slayer was everything she'd ever wanted in life.

Jo winced, feeling a pull at the small scratch one of the goblins had left across her abdomen. It reminded her of something, but she pushed the sensation down. Sometimes she'd dream of a wound there, even though the skin was unscarred, and she couldn't remember anything ever slashing her open.

Sometimes she'd dream of other things too, things that made her question why she was here. Most of the time, though, she'd dream of a man, her old watcher, the one who'd stepped into her mother's bar one day, a tootsie-pop at his lips, and told her that she had a destiny, the same way other people would tell a stranger their fly was down.

A destiny, her.

He'd died sending her to California, trying to get her to Buffy Summers, to safety. But in her dreams, she imagined he was alive, watching her from the other side. He'd tell her things, like he wished he could visit, but it was too hard to get to where she was. He'd tell her she looked like she was having fun. Hell, he'd tell her that her ass looked nice in those jeans.

Jo snorted.

"Thinking of spending my money?" Xander asked, stepping up to her side. He bumped her shoulder back.

"My money, you mean?" she scoffed. She shook her head, letting it go. "Xander, do you ever think about your past and wonder if you're forgetting something?"

The man was quiet a moment, then he shrugged. "Like if I left the coffee pot on? Because the answer is no. Dawn left the coffee pot on. She always leaves it on."

"I'm serious."

"Me too. But if you ask me, I think your future is going to be far more entertaining than your past." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and they started the trip back to the front of the castle. Then he reached into his pocket, pulling free a sucker. "Lollipop? Come on, take it. You only live once, you know? Unless you're Buffy, of course."

_Or me_, Jo thought, a chill running over her, but she shook off the sensation and pushed the strange thought to the back of her mind. "Right," she agreed, and plucked the candy from his hand.


End file.
